Elie Wiesel
Background Elie Wiesel was born September 30, 1928 in Sighet, Transylvania what is now known as Romania. He grew up in a small village in Sighet which caused his life to heavily revolve around his Jewish religion and his family. He grew up with his mother, father and three sisters. In 1944 at the age of fifteen, he and his family were deported to Auschwitz after their village had been destroyed by Nazi soldiers. At Auschwitz both Wiesel's mother and youngest sister passed away. While Wiesel's two older sisters stayed adn survived at Auschwitz, Elie and his father were deported to Buna, Buchenwald and Gleiwitz, not far form the camp's liberation his father died in April of 1945 at Buchnwald. After the war had ended, Wiesel moved to Paris in 1948 to study, he later became a Journalist for the French newspaper the L'arche. Being a Holocaust survivor many people came to Wiesel asking him about his experiences living in the concentration camps, soon he was persuaded by French writer Francois Mausiac to write a book based of his experiences. In 1958 he published his memoir La Nuit (The Night), since then The Night ''has been translated in over thirty languages, and has gained international recognition due to the evidence and insight it provides towards the Jewish persecution and placement in death camps. Since the publishing of ''La Nuit ''Wiesel has written over sixty books. '"Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into on elong nighte, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky. Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever. Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live. Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul adn tunred my dreams to dust.Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never'" ~ ''La Nuit Impact In 1978 President Carter made Wiesel the Chairmen of the President's Commission on the Holocaust, in 1980 he became the Founding Chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council. Now, he and his wife, Marion Wiesel, have founded The Elie Wiesel Foundation For Humanity, his foundation's main goal is "to figtht indifference, intolerance, and injustice"( The Elie Wiesel Foundation). He is also a known advocate for several causes including: the situation of Soviet Jews, genocide and famine in Africa, and victims of war in former Yugoslavia. Due to his acomplishments in furthering the education of the Holocaust, Wiesel has gained over 100 honorable degrees from colleges, as well as postitons in faculty, and titels such as Univeristy Professor at Boston Univeristy. On December 10, 1986 in Oslo, Norway Wiesel accept the Nobel Prize for Peace: "This is what I say to the young Jewish boy wondering what I have done with his years. It is in his name that I speak to you and that I express to you my deepest gratitude as one who has emerged from the Kingdom of Night. We know that every moment is a moment of grace, every hour an offering; not to share them would mean to betray them. "Our lives no longer belong to us alone; they belong to all those who need us desperately" ~ Elie Wiesel